The Scene of the Crime with Steve Burrows, Sara Blaedel and Giles Blunt

By Christopher Carroll

Dark
and dreary night? Check. Dimly lit, atmospheric room? Check. Three individuals
with the knowledge and the know how to commit grisly murders, and get away with
them? Check, check and check.

While
not nearly as gruesome as the sum of its parts, the festival’s “Scene of the
Crime” night highlighted the inner workings
of what goes into constructing (and solving!) some of literatures greatest
crimes, bringing together three celebrated crime novelists to discuss exactly
what goes into their minds, when they go into the mind of a crook.

Featuring
“Denmark’s Queen of Crime” Sarah
Blaedel, bird enthusiast Steve Burrows and
Arthur Elis Award winner Giles Blunt, the
night began with passages read from each of their respective new
stories. Blaedel began the night recanting a passage from her new story The
Forgotten Girls, which told of a frantic trip through
the woods, ending in a case of mistaken identity and murder.

Burrows
chose two passages to read to the audience, in order to demonstrate the split
nature of his book. An avid bird enthusiast, Burrows has built his writing career
through mixing his hobby of birding with his love of crime novels. His readings
came from his book A Pitying of
Doves (how he was able to resist calling his
book “A Murder Most Fowl” is beyond me). The first passage he read showed off
the birding side of Burrows, with the main character attempting to enjoy bird
watching with his wife, while the second passage made a sharp right turn down
death alley, following a dying man’s last moments as he delivers a mysterious
package to his wife.

While
not directly crime related, Giles Blunts new story The Hesitation
Cut demonstrated just how much talent
Blunt brings to the literary table, telling a detailed and amusing story of a
monk tempted by the world outside of his monastery.

After
the pieces were read, the conversation turned more towards the art of crafting
the perfect crime, with each author offering their perspective on how they
create not only believable characters, but believable settings as well. All
three authors admitting writing from a place a familiarity, with Blaedal going
as far as to base her new story in a semi fictional version of her home town.
Burrows enthusiastically admitted that much of the joy of his writing comes
from his own fascination with birds, and while Blunt admits that he is not
nearly as charismatic as the lead in his long-running series of crime novels,
much of his writing does come from things that interest him in some way or
another, be it subject matter or location.

When
asked about bringing something new to the genre, each author was passionate
about what they wish to say with their stories. Blunt was critical of how
detectives are portrayed in popular media, shown as mavericks and lose cannons
who play by their own rules, and wouldn’t last a second in real world bureaucracies.
He wanted to bring to life a competent, by-the-books detective who, while not
perfect by any means, was still a normal guy dealing with things the proper
way.

Blaedel
spoke about creating a character that evolved as she did, creating a new
identity for herself over the length of the serious, changing and learning from
her experiences and relationships, and allowing the character the flesh
themselves out in a unique way.

“I’m
just trying to find different ways to kill a person,” said Burrows with a
laugh, ending off the night.

Filled with intrigue,
murder and needed does of laughter, The Scene of the Crime showed the audience
just what kind of minds it takes to make some of their favourite crimes come to
life, demonstrating how anyone you pass on the street may have the perfect
murder cooking in their heads.